


Dancing Skeletons and Greek Gods

by notsowriterly



Category: The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst, Emotional Abuse, F/M, Happy Ending, I may just make this solangelo, M/M, Nico Feels, Self Esteem Issues, Sorry Not Sorry, but it gets better, but probably not, it's kind of depressing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-05
Updated: 2014-11-05
Packaged: 2018-02-24 04:23:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2568092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notsowriterly/pseuds/notsowriterly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nico’s life is filled with funerals and wakes, but the one that he remembers the most is his sister’s. </p><p>(In which Nico is the son of a funeral director, Percy shares his greek mythology text book and simultaneously makes Nico fall in love.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dancing Skeletons and Greek Gods

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: This work is based of another fanfiction, so it's kind of like the fanfiction of fanfiction if that makes sense. I do that a lot. Don't kill me. All rights for the idea, and half of the plot goes to nusantara, who wrote a lovely fic, called Putting the Fun in Funerals, which this is based off on. There will be overwhelming similarities. If there's an issue with this, please let me know, and I'll take it down. I do this a lot, as I've mentioned before, and I'd like to know if doing this is something wrong, so I can put an end to it.

Nico’s life is filled with funerals and wakes, but the one that he remembers the most is his sister’s.

Bianca was everything. She was her father’s favorite, the person Nico looked up to, the one person from his father’s first wife that even his stepmother couldn’t stand to hate. Years later, he could feel the impact of her death, but as a ten year old, he just couldn’t imagine it. Bianca was strong and fierce, there was no such thing as her being gone. She was “gone” when she went to school every morning too, but she always came back, didn’t she?

_Didn’t she?_

No one seemed to want to answer his questions. But he had to know. He had to know what happened to Bianca.

Finally, his Dad couldn’t take it. Nico cowered as his father screamed at him that she was dead, that she wasn’t every coming back, and it was all Nico’s fault. That he wished Nico was dead instead.

And then when the funeral came, Nico started to wish it too.

Bianca had a closed casket funeral. Nico knew a lot about different types of funerals and wakes, it came with being the son of the owner of a large chain of funeral homes. Bianca’s funeral was held in their biggest one, the country side one just out of town. The place was cold, and decorated in pale orchids and cala lillies, courtesy of his step mother’s flower shop, and he remembered that he thought that Bianca’s funeral didn’t suit her. The girl he remembered was bright and feirce and bursting with color, and she would’ve hated such a pale, dreary funeral. She always said she loved the New Orleans type funerals, the loud music and promenade.

But he didn’t say a word.

In fact, he didn’t speak much in general after what his father said the day before.

\----

Years later, he still didn’t speak in his father’s presence. Or his step mother’s to be honest, but he knew both of them preferred it that way.

“Come home straight out of school. And try not to get detention.”

Nico curled into the seat, nodding. His step mother looked at him disdainfully, no doubt annoyed that she had to drop him off for his first day of sophmore year. Lord knew she had better things to do, like talking to plants and pretending he didn’t exist.

He doesn’t say that out loud though, staring out of the window as she pulled up to Olympus High. He barely makes it out of the car before she speeds away, leaving him to the hell that was high school.

He didn’t try to fool himself into thinking that just because it was his second year, anything would be fixed. He was proven correct when, as soon as he entered, one of the jock boys tripped him, making him fall flat on his face.

 _Wow, tripping the puny goth kid? You’re so macho!_ Nico thought sarcastically, but he knew better than to say that out loud, so with years of careful practice, he kept his mouth shut as the jocks laughed and slapped high fives, leaving him to scramble up and out of their way.

He mentally cheered as he managed to get through the first seven periods with minimal public humiliation, and took a seat at the back of the class for his last period, Ancient Greek Literature. He was actually kind of looking forward to this class. History had always interested him, and the Greeks were especially fascinating. He remembered when he was little, how Bianca had given him this card game, Mythomagic, for his seventh birthday, which he became obsessed with. It had been based off of greek myths, and it was probably what caused his unwavering fascination. History was messy and fragile and interesting, full of people that were so much more amazing than he could ever aspire to be. And in the back, he could be alone, he could take his notes in peace, and pay attention to the class with out having to deal with some asshole sticking gum in his hair.

Or so he thought, until a senior barged in out of breath, his hair dripping, gasping out excuses.

Nico looked up, and his breath caught in his throat.

Because he was _beautiful_. He looked like a hero out of a Grecian classic, a ocean eyed Adonis with dark hair, whose eyes bubbled like sea foam. And then Nico looked around the class, and panic filled his lungs with the same water that seemed to be swirling in this boy’s eyes, because the only seat available was right next to him.

He can’t do this.

It’s bad enough that he’s a freak, that when he was twelve he kissed Barry Mueller in an empty class room and the next morning Barry called him a faggot and refused to ever look at him again, that he couldn’t look at a girl and muster the same aching want that he did when he looked at a boy, and he knew, _knew_ that if this Adonis tried to even talk to him, that he would do something he was going to regret. He focused on his text book, clenching his pencil tight and hoping that this guy was as vain and air headed as the rest of them, because if he tried to be nice? Oh, _good lord._

Luck isn’t on his side.

As soon as the guy sits next to him, he turns to Nico with an easy smile, peering underneath his lashes. “Hey, I’m Percy. Percy Jackson. Mind if we share a book? I still have to buy mine.”

Nico mumbles out something vaguely resembling a yes, pushing the book toward him as much as he could, his cheeks heating as Percy shifts his desk closer, and Nico can feel the inches seperating them like an ache in his bones. It’s unfair really. This stupid Percy Jackson should not look like his dream boy personified, and Nico should definitely not wonder want it feels like to touch the corded muscles in his arms. Why couldn’t he be stocky? Or twig skinny, like Nico? Even Barry Mueller had the side defect that he was a major ass. But the warm, polite sentences from Percy’s mouth rule out that possibility as well. By the time class ends, he hasn’t concentrated a bit on the lesson, and he’s thoroughly annoyed at stupid, flawless Percy Jackson.

But he tries not to let it show as Percy turns in to that same generous smile. “Hey, thanks, uh…” He frowns. “Sorry, what was your name again? I must’ve forgot.”

“You didn’t ask. But it’s Nico. Nico di Angelo.” Nico says, and his voice sounds hoarse from disuse. He must sound like a frog. He had the social skills of one anyway. He feels his ears glow red, and tries to busy himself with packing away his things.

In his mortification, he barely notices the pause before Percy manages to answer. “Oh, right. Nico di Angelo, my new Odyssey reading buddy. Got it.” Percy laughs, and Nico’s brain melts into his toes because, _goddammit_ , that _laugh_. If there was anything to seal the deal, it would be that, the warm, husky sound that just seems to make his blood warm.

It’s official. He’s screwed. And not in the sense he wants to be.

 

\-------

 

“Are you new to the school, Nico di Angelo?” Percy has this odd habit of saying his full name, and Nico shouldn’t like the way it sounds, but _he does_ , and it’s not okay. It’s already Friday, and Percy has yet to get a book, but Nico can already tell that he’s pretty scatter brained, seeing the ragged, disheveled mess of his folders. It just means more torture for Nico.

Nico shakes his head. “Been here since freshman year,” he mumbles, and he’s still surprised at Percy’s ability to descipher what he’s saying.

Percy back pedals, his eyes widening. “Whoa, seriously? How did I miss you? I pretty much know everybody around here.”

Nico shrinks into his seat, mortification curling in his stomach. This just shows how much he and Percy were different. And why he and Percy weren’t ever going to be _anything_. Percy seems to know that he said the wrong thing, because he smiles softly at him. “Hey, don’t worry about it. I’m glad I at least know you now.”

Nico wants to bang his head on the desk. How is he supposed to distance himself from Percy, when Percy says things like that? And then to make it worse, Percy says, “Hey, talking about that, I figuired since I was pretty much stealing your book for the past week, I might as well pay you back.” Nico furrows his eyebrows. “You want to go out for lunch? I have swim practice at five on Fridays, so I figuire we can go get some burgers from this really nice place on Gary.”

No. No, no, no. This is a _very_ bad idea. Nico got ready to shake his head, politely decline as much as a socially inept goth boy could politely decline, but then he finds himself saying, “Yeah, okay.”

Shit.

 

\-----

 

Nico practically moans at the taste of these burgers. Burgers were far from his favorite food, but here? They tasted spectacular. He sees Percy watching him with an amused expression, and his cheeks go pink. “Sorry,” he mumbles, putting down his burger, and pushing it away, and Percy frowns, pushing it back.

“I didn’t bring you here so you could _not_ enjoy the food. Go ahead, eat. You look like you’re hungry.”

As if on cue, Nico’s stomach growls, and he blushes harder, picking up the burger again.

“So…” Percy says after a moment, “What’s with the skulls?”

Nico peers down at his t-shirt. He usually wears things with skulls on it, and he always wears the silver, skull-encrusted, ruby-encrusted ring that Bianca gave him for his tenth birthday. It was their little inside joke, being the heirs to a business of death, and he feels a pang as he remembers it. He looks up into Percy’s friendly eyes, and he wants to tell him about her, the sound of her laugh, and the way she joked around, and the way she’d make him _feel_ , accepted and safe and worthy. But instead he just shrugs, peering back at his burger. “No reason. Just like them, I guess.”

A pause. “Do you play any sports?”

“Do I look like I do?” Nico’s eyes widen as the retort slips out, but then Percy lets out a surprised bark of laughter.

“No, I guess you’re right. Sorry.” He grins at Nico around his burger, and Nico’s bones melt for a second, before he berates himself for it. Pretty people were everywhere, and so were nice people, like his cousin, Hazel. That didn’t make Percy some kind of novelty, and Nico definitely should not be thinking about jumping him in a crowded burger joint, _no_ , that would be _bad_.

Right?

His eyes snap back to Percy as he speaks up again. “You know what would make this burger better?” Nico quirks an eyebrow, shaking his head, and Percy gets a maniac glint in his eyes. “If this burger was _blue._ ”

Nico can’t help himself, he snorts out at the sudden revelation, his lips curling upwards in disbelief before he catches Percy looking at him oddly and squashes it, frowning. “What?”

Percy shakes his head. “Nothing. You just...Never mind. What’s so bad about blue food?”

His smile makes the words spill from Nico’s mouth. “Nothing’s wrong with blue food. If it, you know, is _supposed to be_ blue.”

Percy looks mock affronted. “Supposed to be? Are you limiting this food’s rights? I’ll have you know, this food can be whatever it wants to be! This is Amurica!”

His hillbilly accent pushes Nico over the edge, and he can’t help it, he laughs, if only for a moment, surprised at his own audacity. Since when did anyone make him laugh? Percy’s smile goes wide, and Nico looses focus for a second, the tips of his ears and the tops of his cheeks turning beet red. He’s reached his limits. If Percy smiles like that at him for one more second, he’s going to do something stupid. He pushes back from the table abruptly.

“I...I, um, have to go. I’m sorry. Thanks for the burger.” He scrambles out of his chair, ignoring Percy’s confused look, and high tails it out of there, nearly tripping over his feet in his haste, and trying his best not to look at Percy, because if he sees that wounded, confused look in his eyes, he might just do something he’ll regret, like drag him into a corner and have his way with him.

Barry Mueller’s face echoes in his mind, scowling, calling him a freak, and Nico knows, no matter how much of gentleman Percy is, his reaction wouldn’t be any better.

 

\------

 

Percy’s hesitant the next day, and it nearly kills him inside. He bites his lip, wanting to talk to him, yet not, and he’s always better at the latter, so he stays silent, twisting his ring around his finger nervously.

_Freak._

_You should’ve died, not her!_

_Loser._

_God, what’s wrong with you, faggot?_

He feels his cheeks heat, his fingers fumbling, flustered, making his writing shaky as the words circle around his head. He’s helpless to stop it. The distance Percy seems to be maintaining only makes those voices _louder_. He wants to run, to bolt away, and for a split second, he looks up, his eyes meeting Percy’s, and surprise flits across Percy’s feautures when he sees the anguish in Nico’s eyes. Nico’s quick to look away.

Percy doesn’t say anything though, until class ends, and then Nico hears that warm, honeyed voice again, and it’s enough to make all the numb negativity in his veins turn into light, bubbly warmth, no matter how much he tries to push it away. “Hey, Nico?”

Nico turns around, tugging on the strap of his bag nervously. Percy looks a bit more like himself again, all crooked smiles and easy confidence that makes Nico’s knees go weak. “Yeah?” His voice is shaky, unsure, and he wishes for a moment that he had that easy confidence, that he cool look back and smile back and go, “Yeah, what’s up?” as if Percy’s mere voice didn’t do all sorts of filthy things to him.

“You wanna come to my swim meet?”

Nico wants to say no. The last thing he needs is to see Percy in a speedo, and not to mention swim meets were probably a place he would hate, with all loud, normal people and then him, isolated in the corner like a loser, but since when did his mouth ever listen to his brain? He finds himself agreeing shyly, and trying to stifle the warm feeling that runs through him when he sees Percy’s smile widen.

\-----

“Hey, Nico?” Percy’s head lolls on his shoulder, his hair brushing Nico’s neck, and Nico hopes that Percy doesn’t notice the way his pulse flutters.

“Yeah?” He mumbles. Percy looks up at him with pleading, puppy dog eyes.

“You should bring me something to eat next time.”

It’s become something he’s been doing these past few weeks, Nico going to Percy’s swim meets, if only to spend half the time trying not to get caught ogling Percy in his speedo. Nico can’t help it. Percy’s made up of lean, hard lines and the perfect swimmer’s body, and the water clinging to his skin and the faint chlorine smell Nico gets afterward makes heat simmer low in his belly. And it doesn’t help that Percy’s starting to get so tired that he forgets the words “personal space,” which Nico finds adorable and completely infuriating.

Nico tries to hide his smile, erasing an answer off his homework. “Something blue, too?”

“Oh god, yes…” Percy moans, and Nico turns beet red at the sound.

“F-fine. I’ll try.”

And the way Percy beams at him makes everything worth it.

\------

Nico tries really, really hard not to seem too suspicious during his next video chat with his step-sister, Hazel. She’s going to a boarding school in LA, and she always comes back with lots of stories to tell about her boyfriend, Frank, or her room mate, Piper, and Piper’s best friend Leo, or Piper’s boyfriend Jason. Nico’s always been fascinated with her life, hanging onto every word of the normal, teen life that he never had the chance to have.

This time, though, he can’t help it. Leo and Piper’s antics seem _way_ more funny than they should have, and he laughs, muffling the sound into his pillow. Hazel raises her eyebrows, tucking a peice of her curly hair behind her ear. “You seem oddly happy today.”

Nico shakes his head, holding back his smile. “I’m not, I’m just...I don’t know.”

Hazel leans forward eagerly. “So...who is it? Have I met her? Is she pretty?”

Nico immediately sobers. Right. Girls. He was supposed to be into girls. “It’s no one, Haze. I just had to much sugar today.” He gives a meager smile, and looks at the clock. He has to get going if he’s going to go pick up something for Percy. “Look, Hazel, I’ve really got to go, alright? I’ll call you later.”

Hazel still looks suspicious, but she smiles. “Okay, then. Love you.”

He smiles. “Love you too.”

 

\-----

 

By the time he makes it to the swim meet, he’s late, and he’s barely in time to see Percy finish his last lap, first place as always. He smiles, moving forward to go greet him, but he’s beaten there by a pretty, tall blonde, who grins at Percy for a second before moving forward and kissing him on the lips. Percy smiles into the kiss, threading his fingers into her hair, and Nico feels his heart drop into his stomach. There seems to be something in his chest, pressing against his lungs, making it hard to breathe, and he takes a step back, as if he could step back in time, so he never had to see this.

Percy looks up, meeting his eyes and grinning, and Nico freezes for a split second before dropping the box of blue colored cupcakes that he brought and running out of the pool.  

 

\------

 

He doesn’t go to school the next day or the next. Or the next next. He’s a moron. He doesn’t know what he was thinking. Of course Percy would have a girl friend. Percy’s normal, and beautiful, and holds the warmth of the summer sea in his eyes, of course he would have a gorgeous girl friend.

_Idiot._

_Freak._

_What did you think, that’d he’d actually like you?_

Nico curls onto himself, hating the voices but knowing they were true, they were all true. He whimpers, and presses his lips together tight, squeezing his eyes shut, just as the door bell rings. He can barely hear it over the sound of the voices in his head. He crawls out of bed, each one of his limbs feeling too hard to lift, and opens the door, ready to pretend that he was some sense of a normal human being. But as soon as he opens the door, he regrets it.

It’s Percy.

It’s Percy, and he looks concerned, and warm, and so beautiful that it makes Nico’s heart ache in his chest. He hates Percy, hates himself for wanting him, hates everything about this. He scowls at him, crossing his arms.

“What are you doing here?” He tries to make his voice as icy as possible, but it still comes out hoarse and broken.

God, he hates himself.

Percy steps forward, feeling his forehead, and Nico’s eyes go wide in shock. “You don’t seem to have a fever. Do you have a cold? Is that why you haven’t been coming to school the past few days? I mean, I saw you at the swim meet, but you just ran, and...why? Why did you run? What happened?”

 _What happened is that I fell in love with you, you idiot,_ Nico wants to say. _I fell in love you because I’m stupid, and worthless, and a freak who thought he could be with you._ Suffice to say he doesn’t say anything of the sort, and instead just looks at the ground, keeping silent and stepping back away from Percy. Percy’s cell phone rings, and he looks at him, frowning before rejecting the call. Nico feels his throat go tight. “Is that your girl friend?”

Percy looks up distractedly, brushing a lock of hair from his eyes. “Yeah, that’s Annabeth. She’s visiting from her boarding school in San Fransisco, so…”

Nico nods, and tries to give him some semblance of a smile. It falls short. “You should go spend some time with her. Don’t worry, Percy. I’ll be fine.”

“But--” Percy tries to protest, but Nico steps back, already closing the door.

“I’ll see you at school, Percy. I hope you have fun with your girl friend.”  


End file.
